It's a sad fact in today's America that looks win out over substance every single time. The atrocious treatment of Leah-Lynn Plante is just the latest example of a person being vilified for her looks while her principled stance against a corrupt government is utterly ignored.

These three young people are self-described anarchists. The federal government didn't like what they said when they exercised their Right to Freedom of Speech so it went after them, but not in the usual manner.

Instead of arresting the trio and charging them with an actual crime, the government did something much more despicable. The government demanded they speak to a Grand Jury and then imprisoned the three for refusing to speak at all, or what in a civilized society is called invoking their Right to Remain Silent.

Did you realize that invoking your Right to Remain Silent is a crime in America?

Did you realize this precious right was stripped from Americans by the very government that is supposed to support and defend your rights?

So much for the Land of the Free...

Most Americans don't believe they can be sent to prison for the "crime" of, well, for no crime at all actually.

The way this is accomplished is really quite devious.

The 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution makes it abundantly clear that a person cannot be forced to testify against themselves. This is the very core of our right to remain silent.

No person... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;

Since the 5th Amendment protects an individual from testifying against themselves, the government granted these three protestors immunity from prosecution. Since they could not be prosecuted for any crimes, real or imagined, they were then forced to testify before the Grand Jury or be found in contempt of court, a "crime" for which you can be sent to prison for 18 months.

It's a neat little trick, or what I call an end-run around your constitutional rights. Actually, it's more of like taking a flamethrower and burning down the Constitution, but since nobody cares about such quaint notions as Rights and Freedoms any more, the government continues to get away with this affront to our Liberty to this very day.

So much for the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. We're NOT free, and the Brave are sent to prison for standing on one of the foundational principles of the American Republic.

Leah-Lynn Plante

So what's all this got to do with Leah-Lynn Plante and my calling her guilty until proven innocent?

Well, at its core it's got to do with the fact that Leah-Lynn Plante is a very pretty girl.

She is the most photogenic of the three anarchists who were sent to prison, and her looks helped raise her profile in the days leading up to her incarceration for defying the Grand Jury.

Her good looks also appear to be what the government is using to discredit the young woman and her stance against the Grand Jury system.

Discredit Plante, discredit the entire protest. Simple. All without saying a word.

While Matt Duran and Katherine "Kteoo" Olejnik sit in prison for defying the Grand Jury to this day, the government quietly released Leah-Lynn Plante after just a few weeks of solitary confinement.

There was no announcement from the government as to why Plante was released. They didn't need one. The government is very well aware that anything they said would not be believed by the anarchist movement so they stayed silent, knowing full well that this silence, coupled with Plante's release, would be interpreted exactly the way they wanted.

Sadly, the government right.

Human beings are innately degenerate creatures who will eat their own young given half a chance, so it really should not surprise anyone that the very same Anarchist movement that so gleefully splashed Leah-Lynn's face across every website possible is now calling her a traitor, and worse.

Leah-Lynn Plante is now guilty in the eyes of the very people whose principles she went to prison to defend.

It's ironic, and by ironic I mean stupid, ignorant and disgusting.

Prison is not a nice place. It's intentionally not a nice place for a reason. Governments use prisons to, among other things, make statements. Generally that statement is along the lines of "Might is Right" and in the case of Leah-Lynn Plante, Matt Duran and Katherine “Kteoo” Olejnik that statement was

"Do as we say or you will go to prison."

Now I personally have no knowledge of what Leah-Lynn Plante did or did not say to anyone. I have no proof of why the government released her and not Matt Duran or Kteoo Olejnik, but I have a pretty good theory about why she was released while her two friends remain in prison.

In any propaganda war the primary objective is to win the hearts and minds of the public.

Like it or not, the Anarchist movement was winning that war against the Grand Jury system by using images of all three young people, but primarily that of Leah-Lynn as they explained to the world these three American citizens were rotting in solitary confinement for daring to defy an unjust Grand Jury system.

American's love pretty faces and any publicity campaign will always get more mileage by using a one.

As you can see for yourself, she is pretty. But as Lean-Lynn Plante said herself, she is far more than just a pretty face. She is a young woman who is, I believe, committed to a path of action; to a set of principles that guide her decisions and actions.

That she was willing to go to prison for 18 months in defiance of a system that criminalizes our Right to Remain Silent speaks volumes about the kind of character she possesses.

Unless you are dead between the ears that is really the only conclusion a person can come to after listening to her explain why she was going to prison in the video she made the day they took her away. That her supposed friends and allies are turning on her like vultures doesn't say much for them, their cause or their principles.

Me? I'll stand with Leah-Lynn Plante unless and until actual facts come to light that she has done anything other than what she said she would do, namely go to prison before speaking to the Grand Jury.

Having watched Bruce Montague go through a similar ordeal for daring to challenge the law here in Canada, I can assure you that solitary confinement is no pleasant thing. It tears at your mind in ways you cannot imagine until you are placed in that situation, stripped of your dignity, privacy and community.

So, the next time someone near you calls Lean-Lynn Plante a traitor simply because she needs time to recover from and deal with the trauma she's been through at the hands of a thuggish state, tell them to shut their mouths and give her the respect she's earned by taking a principled stand against a corrupt government.

The very least all the "Keyboard Quarterbacks" can do is to shut up until there are actual facts to go on.

Right now all anyone knows is that Lean-Lynn Plante was released from prison and is in hiding, doing her best to recover from the abuses of the State. She deserves whatever time she needs to do that, and our support and encouragement while she does.